Personal development and getting naked, part 1

There's something about personal development that seems like it should be held in the privacy of your own home, far away from prying eyes of others. I'm reminded of the private nature of personal development when I try to avoid running into someone I know when perusing the self-help section at the library. It's the same motivating factor that caused you to drive as far as possible to buy condoms for fear you might run into your neighbor. (Actually, I still do that...but I digress...)

However embarrassing, I'm determined to be authentic this year, and I'm sharing my personal development journey - warts and all! (Please turn the lights down, m'kay?)

Recently discovering and becoming inspired by Gwen Bell's post on creating your personal manifesto, I grabbed my market and set to do creative goal setting work. Personal manifesto? Sounds pretty cool, doesn't it? I thought so too.

Step 1 - Find some zen in your space

Some people can be creative in any atmosphere. And to some extent, inspiration can be found in the most unlikely of places. For me though, inspiration needs a place to settle around and get comfortable with as much room to expand as possible. Clearing the clutter in your space is important to get a clean slate in your mind. It's hard to be creative when you're worrying about the dirty dishes in the sink, those bills that need to be paid in your inbox, etc. etc. Get clear and make some room for your mind to relax.

Science shows that the happy mind is a creative one. So do whatever it takes to get you to a happy place before you can start to let your mind go for the best possible results.

Step 2 - Grab your thought provoking paraphernalia.

For me this amounted to a heaping mound of Sharpie pens, an career interest activity deck, a boat load of back issues of magazines with pretty pictures and inspiring ideas (Helloooo Martha, I knew we'd collaborate someday), and stuff to cut it up and put it together in one creative mess.

Step 3 - Brainstorm without reservations

This may take a few different formats, depending on your innate need for structure and comfort with playing with idea formation. My suggestion is to journal or mindmap what you want your life to look like for about 15 minutes.  If you already have an idea of where you want to go, you'll have some good ideas for a course of direction. This is particularly important if you, like me, get easily distracted by shiny, pretty things and catchy magazine headers. Perhaps you want to meditate on a few areas of your life - career, family, health, money, community, whatever is important to you - and think of what you want that to look like.

Need more structure? Sorry, this is a no limits class, ladies and gents. Your only instruction is to go nuts and imagine the wild success of your life.

Step 3 - Start putting the pieces together

Go through the magazines and grab what speaks to you. I had some ideas about what I value and want to see more of in my life, can you make any guesses from the picture?

Largely, this is a very personal effort and will look different for everybody - my poster may look nothing like yours - heck, you may not even want to have a poster! Think raw and naked, YOU don't have to post your pictures up for the world to see.

Step 4 - Leave it

Sleep on it, leave it overnight and look at it later, etc. Maybe it doesn't make sense now, but the idea is to avoid limitations or criticism, both of which inhibit the creative process. Next step - now what do you do with your creative work? Is it finished? Do you take it to the local craft store to have it framed or lock it away in a closet?

Neither, actually. Stay tuned...more personal development work is on its way.

Happiness, reinventing yourself and what's the point of money, anyway?

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. ~E.B.White

Mr. Commoncents and I are at a crossroads, specifically:

We have a passion for knowledge.

We want to leave the world a better place.

We believe that the future of the world lies in the youth of the world. And that youth, specifically in America, makes us very worried about the future.

But most importantly - we really, really don't like our jobs.


We don't impact even one of these ideals with our corporate, paper-pusher jobs. In fact, the only thing our paper pusher jobs allow us to do is the relative comfort of a biweekly paycheck and stability of being able to pay the mortgage. And eat. (Oh yeah, eating is very important to us in this house.) Yet, we've become increasingly aware of the importance of congruence: to be able to live your values, make an impact on those you touch, and to generally enjoy the process.

2010 is a whole decade beyond the time I believed as a child that I would be very, very old at the ripe age of 23. My eight year old self could barely fathom being double digits, much less (dramatic pause) well over 30.

So I've decided something: I'm going to change things.

2010 has a theme - The Year of the Transformation.

I'm going on a personal development journey and I plan to open all the ugly and beautiful things that come along with facing the truth:

- My simultaneous desire for security and fear of stagnation
- Not allowing myself to let go of things that don't serve a purpose in my life
- My need to improve the future of the world, coupled with my selfish desires of wanting to just be happy.

I'm going to do a lot of work, I'm going to discover the path I was meant to be on, and I'm going to enjoy the journey. Happiness and fulfillment or bust!

I hope you join me.